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- Jan 13, 2010
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A respected U.S. lawyer specialising in money laundering has told a conference of experts that some financial crimes should be made crimes against humanity. There are cases where corruption, rottenness and theft of public funds do become a crime against humanity, Jack Blum told 200 experts at the Financial Transparency Coalitions conference held in 1-2 October at White Sanda Hotel in Tanzania.
In a case like Equatorial Guinea, what goes on in terms of the transfer of wealth out of the country, and the resulting oppression of most of the citizens of that country, is a crime against humanity in my view, added Blum, who worked as a Senate investigator for many years, as well as a United Nations expert on corruption.
The Central African nation of 700,000 people is the third-biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its wealth, the majority of its population lives in extreme poverty. Equatorial Guineas per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is equivalent to some of the worlds top-tier economies but it has the 19th highest child mortality rate in the world, according to 2010 United Nations and World Bank statistics.
There are more children dying in infancy as a result of that lack of money than you want to count. And to me, its on a par with a kind of genocide, said Blum, who is chair of the advocacy group Tax Justice Network USA. Blum also railed against traditional principles of national sovereignty that thwart efforts to bring international justice.
When you have a criminal government, what the hell do you do? he asked. The question of how to bring about some proper method of holding people accountable when they are heads of states is really an essential problem for us to deal with in the years ahead.
How do we deal with these characters who are running a country who in essence say: Yay. So what? I stole all the money. Its mine. Do something. Im President, Blum asked. This kind of system that allows that sort of nonsense is a system we have to really challenge and say everybody has to be subject to justice for what they do.
Blum played a central role in the 1970s Lockheed Aircraft bribery investigation, which led to the passage of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the investigation of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Make corruption a crime against humanity
In a case like Equatorial Guinea, what goes on in terms of the transfer of wealth out of the country, and the resulting oppression of most of the citizens of that country, is a crime against humanity in my view, added Blum, who worked as a Senate investigator for many years, as well as a United Nations expert on corruption.
The Central African nation of 700,000 people is the third-biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its wealth, the majority of its population lives in extreme poverty. Equatorial Guineas per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is equivalent to some of the worlds top-tier economies but it has the 19th highest child mortality rate in the world, according to 2010 United Nations and World Bank statistics.
There are more children dying in infancy as a result of that lack of money than you want to count. And to me, its on a par with a kind of genocide, said Blum, who is chair of the advocacy group Tax Justice Network USA. Blum also railed against traditional principles of national sovereignty that thwart efforts to bring international justice.
When you have a criminal government, what the hell do you do? he asked. The question of how to bring about some proper method of holding people accountable when they are heads of states is really an essential problem for us to deal with in the years ahead.
How do we deal with these characters who are running a country who in essence say: Yay. So what? I stole all the money. Its mine. Do something. Im President, Blum asked. This kind of system that allows that sort of nonsense is a system we have to really challenge and say everybody has to be subject to justice for what they do.
Blum played a central role in the 1970s Lockheed Aircraft bribery investigation, which led to the passage of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the investigation of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Make corruption a crime against humanity
